Apparatus for milling sign cutouts and letters from templates

Abstract

A router is coupled to a pair of pivotally connected arms for free swinging movement about a horizontal plane in a space between a template and a workpiece. The router has an upwardly extending guide pin that is engageable with the template and a downwardly extending cutting bit which is concentric to the guide pin and engageable with the workpiece below. The template is in parallel, opposed relationship to the workpiece such that as the guide pin is moved about the template, the cutting bit simultaneously mills the workpiece to produce the sign. In preferred forms, a mirror carried by the router reflects an image of the guide pin to the machine operator during engagement with the template, and the mirror is also located in disposition relative to the operator's line of sight toward the cutting bit such that both the bit and the guide pin may be simultaneously observed.

I claim: 
     
       1. Apparatus for milling sign cutouts and letters from templates comprising: a frame;   a housing shiftably carried by the frame for movement in any direction along paths of travel which lie in a common plane;   an elongated, workpiece-engageable cutting bit rotatably carried by said housing;   means for rotating said bit;   an elongated guide coupled to said housing and adapted to engage the edge surfaces of a template,   said guide and the bit being disposed to project outwardly from said housing in generally opposite directions in perpendicular relationship to the plane in which said housing is movable;   a workpiece support located in a position to carry a workpiece in parallel relationship to said plane in which the housing is movable and in disposition for selective engagement of the bit with the workpiece;   a template support in a position to carry a template in generally parallel relationship to said plane and located such that the guide may be disposed to ride along said edge surfaces of the template; and   a mirror between said supports, movable with the housing and having a reflective surface facing toward a template on the template support when the latter is in said position thereof,   said mirror being located in disposition such that during use of the bit to produce a reproduction of the template in the workpiece, the operator may visually observe the reflected image of the guide in engagement with the edge surfaces of the template and also see the bit in contact with the workpiece without significant movement of the operator's head being required.   
     
     
       2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said mirror is located at a slight angle with respect to said plane and thereby the supports. 
     
     
       3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, the longitudinal axis of said guide and the longitudinal axis of said cutting bit being concentric. 
     
     
       4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein is provided means for selectively shifting the guide toward and away from the bit. 
     
     
       5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein is provided means for releasably securing said cutting bit in any one of a number of positions in a direction parallel to its longitudinal axis. 
     
     
       6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said workpiece and said template are generally flat and parallel to said plane during milling of the workpiece while the guide is in selective engagement with the template. 
     
     
       7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein is provided means on said housing for manual grasping thereof facilitating movement of the housing in said plane by the operator as the guide is caused to follow a path defined by the edges of the template and the bit is in cutting engagement with the workpiece. 
     
     
       8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said mirror is carried by the housing between the guide and said bit. 
     
     
       9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said housing is carried by the frame for movement in a generally horizontal plane. 
     
     
       10. Apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein said housing is disposed in a location such that the operator may look down on a workpiece carried by the support therefor and the mirror and template support are strategically positioned such that the operator may look down onto the reflective surface of the mirror and observe the reflected image of the guide in engagement with a template carried by the overhead template support, while still observing the bit in cutting engagement with the workpiece on the workpiece support.